The Female Gaze: Women Depicting Women

Launching on International Women’s Day, Friday 8th March, the new exhibition...

Launching on International Women’s Day, Friday 8th March, the new exhibition at dot-art showcases the work of three women artists, Liz Jeary, Mia Cathcart and Rebecca Atherton. Each artist depicts women in their work, capturing and exploring identity and the complex representations of women in art through diverse art forms.

Navigating the historical phenomenon of the male gaze, the three participating artists subvert the portrayal of women in art. According to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, 51% of visual artists are women; however as artists the Guerrilla Girls famously stated in their art work Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into The Met?, in the Modern Art section of a Museum like the Metropolitan in New York, less than 5% of the artists exhibited were women, but 85% of the nudes are female. By removing the female body from the picture and concentrating on the face, we are forced to consider a new dialogue and fresh perspective of women as subjects. Using brush, embroidery and photography, this collection of work positions women as the onlookers in each piece to enable expression, energy and thought to act as the key narrative throughout the exhibition.

Mia Cathcart paints from her studio space in The Royal Standard, Liverpool. Employing a bold aesthetic in her portraits, Mia’s art purposefully plays between true representation and the abstract. By doing this, each piece experiments with the paradox of familiarity and anonymity, offering the viewer a decision to empathize a recognizable ‘other’ or to invent a character from strong, gestural brush strokes.

Liz Jeary reimagines photographs by applying colourful hand-stitch. Her photographic embroidery sometimes sees the lens turning on herself, experimenting with the representations of femininity, using stitch to extend the emotional narrative of each portrait.

Rebecca Atherton’s acrylic paintings present a magical and theatrical landscape. The women in each piece are often hybrids of human and mythological birds; juxtaposing the more traditional, nurturing role of women in nature with fantastical adaptations which alter our ability to view the subject as female.

This exhibition starts on Friday 8th March and runs until Saturday 4th May. Entry is free and all are welcome.